Sam Johnson

School/Division	Division of Information Technology & Sciences
Programs	Computer Networking & Cybersecurity
Class	2022
Pronouns	He/Him/His
Hometown	Redding, CA

Post-Grad Job

Department of Defense

How has the Upside-Down Curriculum enhanced your education?

The Upside Down Curriculum completely changed my expectation of college learning. Growing up, I had heard stories of students trotting through two years of general education before learning anything related to their major, and I was not looking forward to that. But at Champlain, I was able to get experience in my major immediately, enabling me to achieve internships and scholarships early into my college career.

What do you like about your professors at Champlain?

My professors have been absolutely AMAZING in their willingness to help me succeed. My tech professors are knowledgeable and always willing to help out of the classroom, and my Core professors are always willing to listen when I need someone to talk to.

As a recipient of the Department of Defense scholarship, what advice would you give students looking to apply for this in the future?

Apply. Certainly apply, because I went through the thought process of thinking that maybe I wasn’t a good candidate for the scholarships, and maybe I shouldn’t apply. The application is kind of daunting. It’s a very long application, as well as a medium to large-sized paper (depending on how you view papers). You need to write for it.
But I would say it’s definitely worth the effort because the government has a lot of jobs and while it is a very prestigious scholarship, I was surprised that within the group I was accepted with, a surprisingly little amount of people applied for it. Across the whole country, I think only 600 people applied for it.